A Wet Ceiling

Every once in a while, a request comes my way to find the source of a water leak in a home. This year, there were at least three different requests that received. This is certainly not a task that I enjoy because the result often leads to having to inform a homeowner that they need some costly repairs to fix the source of the leak and resulting damage. In most cases, I'm not the one to make the repairs, but it is still no fun to have to deliver the news.

Recently, the search was for a leak in a rental property in Niwot. I rarely leave Erie, but the owner of this property has been a client since I started my company. The house is quirky, but I have become fairly with the oddities in this home. The leak was in the laundry room and it was easy to determine which area of the house was the source of the leak based on some measurements and reference points inside and outside. 

In the past, I have found that in most cases the grout in a shower has failed, causing a leak similar to the way that this one appeared. Though the shower above was a bit dirty, the grout did not appear to be compromised, nor did the tile walls feel like they had failed. Another area where a shower can develop a leak is around the drain. Upon opening up the ceiling, those two areas did not appear to be the source of the leak. The next move was to remove the trim around the shower valve handle.

The trim around the shower valve handle was removed and sure enough, it was leaking. The manufacturer was Pegasus, a name that I was not familiar with. After a little research, I found that it was supposedly a higher end manufacturer that Home Depot purchased, but let the name fade away. Luckily, the cartridges were still being manufactured under their more popular Glacier Bay line and were available in-store. 

Once the cartridge was replaced, the leak stopped. The area in the ceiling that was wet had started to show signs of drying out. All of the wet drywall was cut out and disposed, leaving the area for another company to mitigate. My job was done. Fix the leak, walk the tenant through the process of making the area whole again, and ease their concerns... all while minimizing the mess left behind.

The one nice feature of this Pegasus valve were the built-in water shutoffs or 'stops'. If I was not able to find the replacement cartridge, the water to the house would need to be 'off' until another way to manage the leak could be found. If I was going to remodel any one of my showers, I would absolutely want valves with stops or another way to isolate the shower valves from the rest of the house.